Welcome

"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” - Romans 15:7

A couple of weeks ago, there was a bombing in church in Pakistan.  Over 80 people were killed, many others injured as the event happened as people were leaving a worship service.  The purpose of this post is not to dwell on man’s inhumanity to man – for any good Reformed thinker understands the concept of total depravity, but to point out something I hadn’t thought much about.

There are Christians in Pakistan. The concept surprises me.  It shouldn’t

Sometimes we Americans think we are the only people in the world; American Christians really get awfully wrapped up in themselves…and we forget.  God has his people all over the globe. And they are not all pale skinned like me.

We don’t just need to remember that God has his people all around the world; we need to act on it.  Paul says in the reading above, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

Act on it.  Somehow, some way we need to reach out and welcome.  Not people in our neighborhood who look like us, but fellow brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.

Like…in Pakistan.

I’m guessing there are a lot of frightened and hurting Christians in Pakistan who could use a reaching out to.  If I can find how to do so, I will share it.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God

Grind

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” - Hebrews 10:35-36

“We have the need for endurance.”  This phrase makes living for Christ seem like a bit of a grind.  OK, let’s be honest it is.  At times, anyway.  If we are truly living for Christ, if we are living for and truly working for Christ, it will be easy –said no one ever.

C.S. Lewis described what Christ calls for out of his people this way:  “Give me all of you!!! I don’t want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU!!! ALL OF YOU!! I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man or woman, but to KILL IT! No half measures will do. I don’t want to only prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! Hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self---in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart.” (Mere Christianity)  

The paragraph exhausts me. So there is a real need for endurance.  We have to be able to tolerate the grind; for as the writer of Hebrews notes, “you may receive what is promised.”

We will receive what is promised. Be confident in that, do not throw that confidence away. Because there will be a great reward.

Work. Give ourselves to God.  Endure.  Christ will get us all through the grind.

Power

“…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death….” Philippians 3:10

“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good….”

I’m sure you read this saying (or one of its many derivatives) many times before.  In recent years I’ve wanted to find out who wrote this saying and confront them.  Only to find out it was written by a 16^th century Spanish mystic, Teresa of Avila.

I’m guessing I’m not going to be able to confront her.  At least not in this life.

I want to confront her because her because this description of Jesus makes him seem very weak.  And powerless.  I don’t buy it for one moment. I’ve known too many people who have by and through Christ alone had their lives changed, people whom the Holy Spirit has literally grabbed a hold of and shaken them down to the core.  Frankly, I am one of them.  I never would have become a Christian back in 1980 if it weren’t the power of Christ and his resurrection working in my life through the move of the Holy Spirit.   

Christ is not as powerless in this world as Teresa and many others would want us to believe.

Yet.

Christ wants to use us; he wants to work through us. You are not the only body Christ has; you are not his only hands and feet on this earth.  But you can be his body and his hands and his feet and his mouth; you can be his instrument.  Christ wants to use you.  And me. 

Here is a challenge for me.  Allow the power of Christ to really work through me.  Maybe this is a great challenge for all of us.  How is Christ going to use us today, tomorrow, next week and the rest of our lives?   Are we open to being his hands, feet, eyes and mouth? 

I pray so. It is why we are here.  As a church.  As individual Christians.  As part of his body; to be his body.  Let us be about the work of Christ, and may the power of his resurrection flow through us….

Prepared

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15

Some things are done on the spur of the moment, led by the Spirit; these are moments to cherish.  Sometimes, though, the work we do requires preparation.  Paul likens this aspect to “a worker who has no need to be ashamed.”

In my prior life I was an electrician; worked in construction.  It took four years of apprenticeship and occasional continuing education to keep myself up on the trade.  If I were to re-immerse myself back into that workforce at my now ripe old age (after 13 years), likely I’d be lost. Technology has changed much, stricter codes likely exist, and frankly younger people could work circles around me.  Yep.  I would have to really work at presenting myself yourself as one approved.

Doing God’s mission often times is done by the quick prompting and leading of the Spirit.  They are done better if we are prepared ahead of time.  Getting into God’s word, spending intentional time in prayer, spending time with other like-minded, and in my case, frankly sharper Christians.  Intentionally preparing ourselves “as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Approved.  By God.

There will be no bigger blessing; God will take delight in working through you. Be prepared….

Rose

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”  - Matthew 18:21-22

Susie and I had the chance to see Pete Rose last Friday evening.  Well, from a bit of a distance anyway.  He was introduced at a reunion of the 1976 Cincinnati Reds “Big Red Machine” at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. We were there to see my Dodgers; unfortunately they fell to the Reds that evening.

Pete Rose.  Banned from baseball for life. Being cheered wildly by adoring fans.  Wearing a Reds jersey.  And.  Banned from baseball for life, for gambling on baseball games while managing the Reds.

The passage above is about forgiveness.  Not necessarily applicable to the Pete Rose situation; for we all have to pay the price in society for our sins.  I get that.  But the introduction of Pete Rose last week did get me thinking about forgiveness.

And grateful for the forgiveness I have experienced in my life.  And the struggle I have had in giving that same grace to others that Christ calls on his trusters and believers to give.  How many times am I to give forgiveness to others?  Once?  Seven times?

Jesus says I am to give it out seventy-seven times; or as some versions of the Bible read, seventy times seven. In other words, I am to give it out an infinite number of times, because Christ has forgiven me an infinite number of times.  What a struggle.

It shouldn’t be though.  If I really consider my transgressions and the pardon I have received…and countless number of times Christ has forgiven and continues to forgive… then seventy times seven really isn’t that difficult.  Consider it sharing forgiveness.  From God and through us.

You know, I pray that Pete Rose has found forgiveness. It is available to all; generously. I pray you have found that forgiveness too.  We all need it.